Status Update: June 19, 2013

Fitness Update - Nordic Walking

First, thanks for the comments on my facebook - glad you're enjoying the posts, and particularly glad a few little nuggets are 'new news' to some.  I'm not an expert in any of this, so please take what I say with a grain of salt.  Everything in my blog I gleaned either from my own personal experience or a bit of research, which may be backed up with very little - if any - first hand experience.  The Nordic Walking topic falls into that category.

The Mpls. Park and Recs group held a demo for Nordic Walking at the community center where I swim, and I went.  I took a demo walk and loved it, but haven't purchased poles or added it to my exercise routine yet.  I fully intend to, though, and will definitely add to this over-view with first-hand experience when I do.

Okay, so the best way to describe Nordic Walking is to compare it to Cross-Country Skiing (aka XC or Nordic skiing).  If you're from Finland, Scandinavia, or Minnesota you've likely tried this.  I add Minnesota to this list because there are so many Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish folks who settled here in the last two centuries - uff da!  Central and Northern Minnesota has a climate and geology very similar to the Norse-lands with their numerous glacier-carved lake areas and wide forests, and immigrants usually seek out lands that are familiar for farming, living, etc.  As an aside, the southern part of Minnesota has a lot of German and Irish immigrants because the soil, climate and growing season was similar to those areas.

Okay, so  XC skiing...

It's not down-hill skiing (and yes, we have a couple of downhill ski areas in Minnesota, but most of the hills are bunny hills, so let's pass that by).  Here's a video example of Nordic skiing:

Nordic Walking is Cross-Country skiing minus the skis!

It was developed by XC skiers who wanted a training method during the off/warm season, but as it turns out, it's a great exercise system for almost everyone.

It's primary benefits are:

1. Gives a better work-out than simple walking by including an upper-body component.
2. Reduces stress on knees and ankles.
3. Helps people with balance/stability issues.
4. Let's you walk faster than without poles, increasing your heart-rate and burning more calories.

As with XC skiing and walking, you swing your right arm forward when your left foot steps forward (arms opposite to legs).  There are straps/demi-gloves attached to the poles, so that you can release the handle on the push-back, and grab it for the propel-forward step.  The best way to try to learn the rhythm is to attach the gloves/strap but not hold the poles (your fingers will stay lightly wrapped around the handle when in the gloves).  Simply walk normally, swinging your arms in the opposite arm-leg movement.

At first just drag the poles along behind you as you walk/swing.  The tips of the poles (when adjusted correctly for height), will hit the ground near the heel of your back foot.  At this point you grasp the handle and push back lightly on your back-swing.  Unlike the tip of hiking poles, which are placed in front of your feet, Nordic walking poles almost never are (except in some downhill techniques) - they're almost always behind you.  They simply add some oomph to your stride, while taking the stress off your joints, and providing additional stability.

You can walk fast or slow, but it will probably be easier to walk faster with the poles.  When you do it correctly, you'll definitely feel that you're working more than with a simple, unassisted walk.

Here's a video showing Nordic Walking techniques, featuring Lindsey Vonn, American Olympic Alpine skiier:

Nordic walking poles are similar to XC skiing poles, but you want to purchase those specifically made for Nordic walking.  Leki is a popular manufacturer, and are the sponsor of the Lindsey Vonn video above.  These poles are different than hiking poles, although some manufacturers have tried to combine both elements into a single design.  Hiking poles can be used singly or in pairs, but Nordic Walking poles are always a set of two, both used at once.

The poles come in 1, 2 or 3 pieces, and are variable length in the 2 and 3 piece sets.  Since the length relative to your height is important, I'd stay away from the single-length poles.  I think the 3-piece poles are primarily to accommodate packing/travel.  I've tried the 2-piece set, and I believe they're the most common choice.

Here's how you determine the length of your poles:

1. Unscrew the poles and slide them to their maximum extension.
2. Stand up straight, holding the right-hand pole in your right hand with your bent elbow pressed to your side (make sure the tip of the pole is touching the ground.
3. Lower your forearm until it's at a tight 90 degree angle, pushing the pole down to the smaller setting.
4. Tighten the pole and repeat with the left-hand pole.

Another way to determine length is as follows:

1. Unscrew the poles and slide them to their maximum extension.
2. Stand with your left foot forward as though in a stride.
3. Place the tip of the right-hand pole near the heel of your right foot (which should be behind you).
4. Lower your arm to the 8 o'clock position (about 30 degrees up from straight down at your side).
5. Tighten the pole and repeat with the left-hand pole.

The length should be set so that as your right arm swings forward to match your left-leg stride, the maximum forward motion brings the tip of the pole just behind you, lined up with the heel of your right foot.

I'm definitely deciding which poles to buy right now.  Once I've started this program, I'll post an update.  And if any of you do Nordic Walking, please share your experience with me.

Cheers!

Status Update: June 18, 2013

Fitness Update

1. Weight/Resistance Training:

Once a month they have an exercise guru available at the center to review exercise equipment (electronic, free weights/weight equipment, resistance equipment, etc.) and I went, just to see if I was using the equipment efficiently.  Turns out I wasn't.

The equipment area at the center has three rooms - electronic (treadmills, recumbent bikes, ellipticals), weight (both free weights and hard-weight equipment for specific muscle areas), and the resistance circuit (weight-training via pneumatic resistance).  My favorite of these is the resistance circuit, because a) hard-weights are more work than I need right now, and b) I own a recumbent exercise bike.

The resistance circuit is a circle of  equipment that operates on air pneumatic resistance, and works specific muscle groups (abs, triceps, biceps, obliques, etc.).  You move around the circle giving each muscle group a work-out.  I didn't realize that this equipment works on both the press-in and press-out, and had simply been letting the air release on its own after the press-in.  So if I were doing a machine that works the inner thighs during the press-in, doing a resistance press-out will work the outer thighs.  Huh, go figure.

I also thought that the slower the press-in/press-out, the more the muscle was worked.  Wrong.  This is true for free weights and hard-weight machines, but not for pneumatic resistance.  Turns out the faster you do your reps, the more resistance you get.

2. Swimming as a fat-burning aerobic exercise:

The other thing I learned was about swimming and fat-burning.  We had a long discussion about it because as the only one there during this session I got the instructor's full attention.  I told her I had been working hard, but hadn't had much to show for it on the scale.  She agreed that a) I'm probably trading off fat for muscle right now, b) it takes a while to get your brain to reverse the metabolic system that is its default setting, and c) swimming is a fantastic work-out over-all, but specifically where low-impact on joints is concerned.  But strangely enough, she told me it's a little harder to burn fat swimming than with weight-bearing aerobic exercise.

There are two reasons for this.  The more buoyant a body is, the less work a swimmer has to do.  So even though stroking through water provides about 10x the resistance of air, the more fat you are, the more buoyant you are, the less resistance you get per stroke.  The second reason has to do with the temperature of the water vs normal body temperature.  Pools are always cooler than body temperature (except for hot-tubs), and good lap swimming pools are often set even lower than recreational pools.  The brains automatic defense mechanism for lower external temperatures is to hold on to fat, not burn it.  This is why some really long-distance swimmers, like those who swim the English Channel, often seem a bit pudgy.  Some of these athletes swim 100 miles a week to train, but they're often in cold water, and an extra layer of fat adds a layer of protection/insulation against hypothermia.  Damn it.

Okay, so she said I shouldn't really worry, because I'm not swimming the Channel (or anything like it!), but I've still decided to try to better balance the lap swimming with the weight-bearing aerobic exercises.  Right now I'm about 4:1 swimming:recumbent bike, and I'm going to try to shift this ratio to 4:3 or 1:1 if possible.  It's a good new/bad news thing; I really love to swim, but I don't have to go to the center to do the bike.  Six of one, half a dozen of another, I guess.

3. Water

I talked about water a couple of days ago, and thought I'd elaborate the formula given to me by my docs, using an example:

A man weights 200 lbs.  He drinks 2 cups of coffee every morning (16 oz.) and one can of caffeinated soda every afternoon (10 oz.).

Initial water consumption in ounces = 200/2 = 100 ounces/daily
Caffeine-replacement water = (16 + 10) x 2 = 52 ounces/daily

Total desired water consumption  = 152 ounces/daily

You need to drink twice as many ounces of pure water for ounce of caffeinated beverage consumed, in order to flush the caffeine out of your system.

And remember:

32 oz. = 1 quart (and close to 1 liter)
64 oz. = 1/2 gallon
128 oz. = 1 gallon

So you can see that the guy in this example should ideally be drinking more than a gallon of water a day (~ 5 liters).  If he filled a liter water bottle five times, he'd know he'd hit his approximate target.  Of course it's a good idea to finish consuming most of your water a few hours before bedtime.  I get dry-mouth a bit without water now, so I always keep a baby's sippy-cup of water by my bed for small sips when I need it (it won't spill if you knock it over).

You can avoid extra water by cutting down on caffeinated beverages, of course.  I pretty much quit drinking soft drinks completely a year ago.  And recently I started using a blend of regular and decaf. coffee grounds in a 2:1 ratio.  My plan is to get to a 1:1 ratio eventually.

Okay, that's it for today.  My next blog entry will be about Nordic Walking (something you Europeans know all about, but Americans, not so much).

Status Update: June 16, 2013

Since I've decided to add a fitness component to this blog - which fits very well with the whole health issue, obviously, I'm going to back-fill a bit, then continue on as I go.  These updates will include health status, new tests, new results, etc. as well as the fitness regime.

To back-fill I have to go back a ways, but I'll just summarize that in this paragraph.  In Dec. 2013, I decided to keep a monthly spreadsheet that kept track of meds, doses, doctor's appointments, blood pressure, etc.  In Jan. I tried to begin a fitness program, but it made me feel unwell.  Of course the problem is that exercising when you've gone for a long time without it will do that, but it sort of felt like some of the symptoms of my illness, which made me anxious, which made me stop.  Long story short; vicious cycle.  I didn't attempt it again until March, with the same results - lasted about 3 days, and stopped.  If you've read my blog, you know that I had extreme symptoms while on vacation in April, and learned later that it was from a drug allergy reaction.  Which pretty much brings me up to the serious fitness attempt, that started on April 25, 2013:

April 25 - 30:

Exercised 5 days out of 6

Strength/Flexibility x 2 (50 minutes w/10 min. stretch/warm-up, and 10 min. stretch/cool-down)
Lap Swimming x 3 (60 minutes, 5 laps which puts my pace at a pathetic 12.00 min./100 meters)
Weight Training x 1 (30 minutes)

Average blood pressure in April: 130/80
April weight loss: 2 lbs.

Note: I put the weight training and strength/flexibility class into the anaerobic category, while the recumbent bike and lap swimming fall primarily into the aerobic category.  Both have cross-over, though, as clearly swimming builds muscle, and the strength/flexibility classes I sometimes take work to keep your heart-rate up to provide an aerobic component.

During this start up I'm working at a very easy/slow pace of course.  For example, a very good swimmer could have a racing pace of just over 1 min/100 meters, and I'm more than 10 times that!  My objective is to develop a habit of exercising 4-6 times a week on average.

At this point I'm not actively doing anything to change my eating habits for a few reasons:

1. I think trying to institute one new habit is challenging enough.  I don't want to fail because I tried to do too much at once.
2. My eating habits and appetite have changed quite a bit since the transplant.  I eat less, and crave sugary sweets less.  Overall I have less room to make a dramatic change in this area.

The difficulty is that my thyroid essentially burned out during the six months when the three components of my illness (lymphoma, hyperthyroidism, pulmonary embolisms) when undetected.  Between that and the sedentary years that followed, my weight has stayed high with a tendency to creep up, despite the lower caloric intake.

May, 2013:

Exercised 23 days out of 31 (~5 days/week)

Strength/Flexibility x 4: 50 minutes (w/10 minute stretch at warm-up and cool-down)
Weight Training x 2: 35 minutes
Recumbent Bike x 4 (30 minutes, ~ 4 miles)
Lap Swimming x 12 (45-50 minutes, started at 5 laps, worked up to 8 for a pace of ~ 5.00/100m)\
Nordic Walking x 1 (30 min. demo session)

Average blood pressure: 120/75
May weight loss: 3 lbs.
Total weight loss: 5 lbs.

Appetite:

Exercise seems to affect me two ways here.  I'm hungry after, but ultimately seem to eat less overall by day's end.  I try to eat before I exercise (usually a smoothie), and then tend to eat my primary meal of the day afterwards, and a smaller meal later.  I try to avoid eating in the evening, just because I sleep better in general.

Here's my favorite smoothie recipe, which is good before exercising:

1/2 banana (I keep mine peeled, broken in 3-4 pieces and frozen)
1/8 c. fresh blueberries (frozen or semi-frozen works good with these, too)
1/4 c. plain, non-fat yogurt
1 c. vanilla almond milk

I read something recently about yogurt that's interesting.  I have no verification of the validity of this claim, so take it with a grain of salt.  It seems some researchers think they've found that many overweight people have an enzyme missing in their intestines, the lack of which leads them to more easily gain weight, and the presence of which helps in fat burning.  I have no idea which is the chicken and which is the egg (did the lack of the enzyme cause weight gain, or did weight gain cause the lack of the enzyme, which exacerbated weight gain?).  At any rate apparently this is part and parcel of the claim that yogurt, which has this living enzyme in it, is a good addition to your diet, especially if you're lacking the enzyme.

I don't know if it's true or not, but the things in the smoothie are good for you, and provide an energy boost, so it works for me.  Blueberries and almonds fall into the super-foods category, and are good anti-oxidants, while providing high energy.  If you're lactose intolerant, soy milk or almond milk is a great alternative.  And if you have a problem with electrolytes, bananas provide potassium.  I used to have severe problems with leg cramps at night, and since I started the exercise program they've been reduced considerably.  I think that both the exercise and the potassium have played a part in this.  1/2 a banana a day is probably more than enough.  Freezing them provides a great chilling/thickening element to the smoothie without having to add ice.

Of course last but not least, it's important to drink a lot of water every day.  The rule of thumb is to drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces.  So if you weigh 150 lbs., you should consume 75 oz. of water daily.  For me it was important to carry a water bottle around at all times, otherwise I wouldn't drink the amount I should.

A final comment.  I still get short of breath easily when just walking.  I think that will continue to be the case until I've lost about 20 pounds and gained sufficient muscle mass.  Those two things should increase the strength in my legs while reducing the over-all weight stress on them.  It will be interesting to see when that point is reached.

June update coming soon.

Status Update: June 15, 2013

Spring was a roller-coaster, starting with a bad March and April, with respiratory problems, throat swelling, and over-all weakness.  It ended very well, however, with the discovery that those symptoms were the result of an unexpected drug allergy.  They disappeared upon cessation of the drug, which was just a sleep aid, and not really necessary in the final analysis.  The best part was that in the course of determining what was causing the symptoms, all my normal yearly tests, set to run later in the spring and early summer, were instead run early in April and came back clear.  That's 2.5 years post-transplant and still clear, which is very, very good news.

So then it occurred to me; maybe I'm actually going to be one of those lucky ones who has a successful outcome from the transplant.  Some medical categories have fairly good success rates, some less so.  Lymphoma is one of the latter, with a 20-25% success rate.  The fact that I've passed the two year mark might mean I'm one of them.  Suddenly I realized, if I'm going to be the lucky one, I have to get my ass in gear and improve my health!

For five years I've been about as sedentary as a person could be, first as a result of debilitating illness, then as a result of several rounds of chemo, followed by a pretty massive stem-cell transplant.  Post-transplant recovery and re-growing of a new immune system takes a year or two, so that added to the sedentary toll.  I'd gotten so used to feeling bad, weak, and sluggish, that it was beginning to feel normal.  This is a bad thing!  I mean it was fine and dandy for the mental work of writing, and for a while it actually let me sling-shot into my YA series, but it's not a good long-term strategy.

Luckily, just as I decided I had to take some action, I received a note from my new insurance company that said I was eligible for free access to some local fitness centers.  One of those centers was just a mile from home, and had the whole range of exercise options; olympic-sized pool, sauna, free-weight and resistance equipment, strength/fitness, cardio and yogo classes.

So since the last week in April I've been working out 5-6 times a week.  My primary exercise of choice is swimming laps, with 1-2 weight training sessions each week.  I have a recumbent exercise bike which I use as a backup when I don't manage to make it to the center to swim - like today.

Okay, so working out like crazy, beginning to feel it in my muscles, and seeing the results in my blood pressure.  It was controlled at ~ 130//80 but is now around 115/70.  Here's the downside; after almost two months, I've seen very little results from the scale!  I lost 2 lbs. the first week of working out, then only 3 lbs. for the full month of May, for just 5 lbs. total!  I'm holding off the June weight until the end of the month.

Despite this lack of movement, I'm very optimistic.  Given my general muscular apathy during the last few years, I'm positive I'm currently in the stage of trading off fat for muscle.  Since muscle weighs more than fat, I figure the pounds I've lost are even better where fat is actually concerned, but is slightly masked at this point by muscle gain.  I feel 500% better, so I'm confident that the next month or two I'll start to see some results on the scale.  I'm trying to be disciplined about it, though; I don't see it as a sprint, but rather a marathon and a lifestyle change.  If I can reach the stage of loosing 2 lbs. a week that would be great, but I'm not counting on anything near that.  I'd be very happy with 1 lb. a week.  Regardless of the number, it's been a revelation, that after such a debilitating illness, normalcy can be glimpsed.

I'm going to try to update more regularly now, with the focus on my exercise and weight program.

Baby steps is the name of the game!